Freshly Laundered 017 / Noah Jacobus

Noah Jacobus is a graphic designer located in Lexington, KY. He spends his days as Brand Manager for Southland Christian Church and his nights making beautiful themes for slackhq (we’re currently using Alto Lux). Read on to find out which designer Noah would most like to have over for pizza.

CB: What does it mean to be a “Brand Manager”? What does your day to day look like?

NJ: Being the brand manager is just a fancy way of saying I’m responsible for how most things at Southland look and sound. That entails everything from sermon series visuals to little illustrated cards that are handed out in children’s ministry. For the size of organization it is, our Communications Team is pretty small-only 5 people. Because of that, my day-to-day ranges through the creation of all manner of print, web, and venue screen content. Just today, I worked on title slides for a new video series, wayfinding signage, and a promotional card for a local medical clinic with which we partner.

CB: Doing something different every day has got to keep your creative juices flowing! Where do you find inspiration for all of these different tasks?

NJ: A lot of it comes directly from the creative momentum of freelance and personal projects I do outside Southland. As varied as it is one day to the next, my job involves a lot of recurring projects; so harnessing that energy to revitalize my full-time work really comes in handy.

CB: Speaking of personal projects, anything you’re working on right now that you’re really excited about?

NJ: Creating and fostering local culture is something that’s been on mind for the last year and change, so I’ve been working with some friends on Made in Lex-promoting the Athens of the West, Lexington KY. Nothing official’s happened with it yet, but I’m excited to keep fleshing it out behind the scenes and hopefully launch later this year.

Also, I really like these hands. I’ve got a couple plans in the works for using those down the road, too.

CB: Made in Lex sounds like an ambitious undertaking, but something that will be quite rewarding! You mentioned on the site that you were home-schooled. Do you think that type of educational system contributed to your interest in a creative field?

NJ: I definitely think so, because my parents were big proponents of letting us choose some of the curriculum ourselves as we got older. I was interested in weird stuff like REALbasic and the Iconfactory’s now-defunct Pixelpalooza contest, so I worked on those alongside core subjects. And without all the normal school bureaucracy, my brother and I would be done by 11am each day-which left a lot of time for playing with Legos and running around outside.

CB: Ha! That’s great that they let you choose some of what you got to learn about; keeps the learning fun and interesting. If you could sit down with anyone currently working in graphic design right now, for a two hour dinner, who would it be?

NJ: I’d like to have pizza with Mattox Shuler of Fort Foundry. We’ve got some mutual friends and have chatted briefly via Twitter, but never at length about the biz or design in general.

Type design has always fascinated me, but Mattox has been able to turn that interest into a viable career. And the faces he makes are fantastic! Seriously, go buy a couple.

CB: Can’t go wrong with a chat about design over pizza, sounds like it’d be a good time! Thanks for chatting with me Noah!

To keep up with all things Noah, you can follow him on twitter, instagram, and dribbble.